


Dragon's Wings And Frost's Ice

by Yuki_White



Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - X Men, Bullying, Bunny and Jack are adopted brothers, Bunny is a Mutant, Discrimination, Families of Choice, Hiccup is a Mutant, Hiccup is a nickname, Hiccup is called Haiden, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jack changes his name, Jack is a Mutant, M/M, Mutantphobia, Mutants, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Secretly a Mutant, Secrets, Swearing, Temporary Character Death, Timeskip, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Xavier Institute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-30 10:06:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8528914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuki_White/pseuds/Yuki_White
Summary: Jackson and Haiden were childhood best friends. Even Haiden turning out to be a mutant with large reptile coal black wings couldn't break them apart...Until Jack's fear allowed other's discrimination to tear them apart. Haiden moved away to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters before they had the chance to patch things back together. And Jack, in a moment of recklessness, had an accident that nearly killed him. Instead the danger awoke his latent mutant powers. Unfortunately, the trauma of the near death experience gave him a serious case of amnesia.Four years passed, and Haiden transferred back and met Jack once more. He was surprised to find him very much changed, physically and mentally. Clearly, he's missing something here that he thought he knew. And Haiden wants to know what it is.Haiden wants to know exactly what really happened that fateful day their friendship broke and find out why and how Jack has changed so much. But Jack is not fully forthcoming and he can't remember Haiden at all.(Storyline in progress. Thoughts and theories might be taken into account.)





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my story. I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> All comments, fair and well rounded criticism and kudos are very much welcome.
> 
> The storyline is still in progress - I'm not entirely sure where this going exactly - so ideas, theories and suggestions are very much welcomed.
> 
> Also, I have limited knowledge on the X-men universe. Please, forgive me for that, and accept that this is an alternate universe where things work somewhat differently from the X-men universe. In this universe, there is discrimination against mutants but by law they have been accepted in society as people.
> 
> Warning: Temporary Character Death, Non-graphic physical violence, Discrimination and Implied child abuse.

“Jack,” Haiden whispered as he suddenly pulled Jack to one side and behind a tree.

 

Jack had been on his way to school when Haiden had suddenly grabbed him off the roadside. Normally they met up outside the school gates. Jack nearly slipped on some ice on the ground from the unexpected grab.

 

“Woah! Hiccup, what –” Jack’s whiskey brown eyes widened at the absolutely massive scaled coal black wings rising about Haiden’s shoulders. The wings were so large they cast a shadow over Jack’s taller form. “Wow…”

 

“I… um…” Haiden’s hands played together nervously, his fingers twisting around one another. “I wanted to tell you, before you found out some other way.”

 

“Are they… real?” Jack murmured awe struck.

 

“Yeah,” Haiden sighed with resignation. “I’m a mutant.”

 

“Can I… touch them?” Jack forced his eyes away from the wings protruding from his friend’s back to Haiden’s deep forest green eyes. Haiden raised an eyebrow in surprise.

 

“Sure.” Jack squeaked with excitement and leaned forward, raising his hand towards one of the leathery wings. Haiden lifted his left wing generously, giving an amused smile at Jack’s childish glee. Jack ran his hands gently down the large black wing. Haiden felt a shiver go down the new limb; it felt so strange and yet still good for it to be touched. The sensation felt somehow intimate.

 

“You’re not freaked out? I mean… I’m a mutant. I have a big black wings coming out of my back – I can fly with them too. Who knows what else I can do?” Haiden asked Jack confused. He’d expected disgust and horror not awe and admiration.

 

“What! No way! They’re… gorgeous,” Jack looked away shyly as he said this and Haiden watched a warm blush cross his face at the admission.

 

Haiden smiled at his friend. “I’m glad you like them.” The smile dropped from his face, “I… Today is my last day at school. Tonight I’m being transferred to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. ”

 

Jack stopped suddenly and stared at Haiden. He didn’t want Haiden to go, but he understood. Xavier’s was a school for mutants like Haiden. Mutants didn’t have to go there but it was a good school for them if they did go. Haiden would be safe there.

 

There was a long moment of silence between the two friends. “I’ll miss you.”

 

Haiden pulled Jack into a gentle hug. Jack’s chin bumped against his forehead. “I’ll miss you too.”

 

* * *

 

Whispers followed Haiden like shadows. He did his best to ignore them but each new comment his newly enhanced hearing overheard stabbed him like pins. He glanced beside him at Jack whose normally confident stride had slumped, his shoulders curled in protectively. Even though the words were about Haiden, as far as Haiden could see it was Jack who was being hurt by them the most. Jack liked others liking him. The thought of being not liked was terrifying to him.

 

But he didn’t say anything all day about the whispers. Neither of them said anything to reprimand the whispering students, but Jack didn’t say anything supportively to Haiden either. He just stood by his side and ignored the other students as if the insults they hurled were nothing. In a way, it hurt Haiden more that Jack was silent on the matter after giving his support so adamantly this morning, than all the words the other students said. Was it selfish of him to wish for Jack to openly take his side?

 

Maybe it was.

 

* * *

 

A group of older students had suddenly attacked them as they were leaving school, pushing Haiden into the red brick wall and throwing insults like bullets. They then started hitting and kicking Haiden. He curled up and raised his wings around himself protectively.

 

“Hey! Stop that!” Jack pulled on the arm of one of the boys in an attempt to interfere.

 

“Why?” One of the older boys, Haiden was sure he was called Tom, curled up his lip at Haiden’s injured form. “Freaks like him need to learn their place.” He then turned on Jack rising above him imposingly, like a wolf over a rabbit. A couple of the other students moved to surround Jack also, trapping him. Jack glanced around himself nervously. “Don’t you think so too?” Jack looked at Tom’s sharp narrowed eyes; his eyes promised violent punishment if Jack didn’t fall in line.

 

Jack wanted to defend his friend but the words were stuck in his throat by the terror that was pumping through his veins. He felt tears slip out and travel down his face. 

 

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Overland,” Tom threatened in a quiet, intimidating tone.

 

“Y-yeah,” Jack slumped down, giving in. He wanted to be brave and protect his friend but his fear just overpowered him. He couldn’t do anything. He was useless.

 

They all laughed, the sound echoed menacingly. With one final kick in Haiden’s direction they walked off and left them.

 

Jack ran to his friend, reaching out a hand to help him up but Haiden slapped the hand away. Slowly he pushed himself up off the ground and stood up, brushing the dirt off his jeans.

 

“Hiccup –”

 

“Don’t call me that,” Haiden’s voice was cold. He tucked the hurt he was feeling away. Jack taking the bullies’ side hurt more than the actual physical harm and harsh words they had said to him.

 

Jack looked down at the ground. He deserved that. He should have defended his friend, not given in because of fear.

 

“Haiden. Are you OK?” Jack asked him in a quiet, resigned tone.

 

Haiden gave a sudden short  laugh.

 

Jack furrowed his brow in concern. “Hai-”

 

“Go away!” He said sharply. Jack stood there unmoving in shock. “GO AWAY!” He shouted, He couldn’t bear to see that look on Jack’s face like he was the one who had been hurt and betrayed.

 

Jack stared at him for another moment then turned and walked away silently.

 

Flapping his wings as support Haiden limped home.

 

* * *

 

 

Jack knocked on the Haddock’s door with his heart in his throat.  It opened to reveal Haiden’s mother, Valka Haddock. She gave him a stern look.

 

“Hi, Mrs. Haddock. Could I speak to… Haiden, please?” Jack asked her anxiously.

 

Valka looked to her left for a moment then turned back to Jack. “Sorry, Jack. Haiden is busy packing right now. He’s too busy to take visitors.”

 

“Oh,” Jack sighed. Normally he’d give Haiden a few days to calm down then speak to him but… “Can you… Can you tell him I’m sorry? Please?”

 

Valka nodded her head then said in a gentle tone, “I’ll tell him.”

 

“Thanks.” Jack turned away as Valka closed the door with a final click.

 

For a long while he just let his feet take him where they will. The ground beneath his feet changed from icy concrete to snow on grass until finally when he next looked up he was at his sanctuary. He was at a little pond in the woods just a little way from his house. It was frozen over from the cold weather they had been having recently. Usually he came here with his sister Emma or Haiden but today he needed to be alone.

 

Jack sat down on a nearby root and rested his head in his hands. Quietly, as if the trees had ears that could spy on him, he cried muffled tears. He had lost his best friend today, not because he was moving away but because he had betrayed him and Jack wouldn’t have a chance to apologise and try to make up for letting him down. Jack had ruined the friendship they had. It was his fault for being such a selfish coward.

 

After a while he wiped away his tears then looked at the frozen pond before him. Normally he wouldn’t even consider it but the day’s events had made him reckless. Normally, he’d be careful and check that the pond was safe, because he couldn’t bear the look Haiden got in his eyes when he did something stupid and got hurt, or because his sister was with him and he didn’t want her to get hurt. But today, he didn’t care. Today, he felt like just taking the chance.

 

Slowly he stood up and pulled his shoes from his feet for more grip. His bare feet paced onto the ice. The cold sent a shiver from the tips of his toes right up his body. The danger of it all made him feel powerful and strong. He could be brave and take a chance even if there was potential danger. As he stood on the iced lake he promised himself that he would never again give in because the danger scared him.

 

Then the ice around him gave a resounding crack! The ice fractured into spider-webs around him. He held his arms out to try and balance himself. He felt the cold hand of fear clutch his heart. Tentatively, he leaned forward in an attempt to go on all fours and spread his weight. But then the ice around him split again and with a final scream he fell into the freezing waters beneath.

 

He struggled to swim up and out but the ice cold water froze his limbs so that every movement hurt like knives stabbing him. He couldn’t tell which way was up or down anymore. The edges of his vision started to fade to black but still he fought against the dark water that was dragging him down.

 

He was dying. He couldn’t escape the freezing water. He could feel himself suffocating, his chest burning for air. His limbs were numb.

 

Then everything went dark.

 

* * *

 

Darkness. That's the first thing he remembered. It was dark, and it was cold. And he was scared.

 

He took a deep breath of fresh winter air. He slid his hands across the smooth glass-like surface of the ice beneath him.

 

Where was he? Who was he? What had happened? He closed his eyes to the deep dark night sky above him and thought.

 

 _Jack_. His name was Jack. He’s… in the woods behind his house at the lake.  He was upset. Why was he upset? His head was all in a jumbled mess. He hoped that he would soon remember.

 

With some effort he pushed himself to his feet. His bare feet couldn’t feel the cold of the lake. He felt like he should be, but he wasn’t. With trembling legs he walked forwards and off the lake, he reached out to steady himself against a tree but jumped back in surprise because as soon as his hand glanced across the surface of the bark swirling frost patterns danced across it. For a long moment he stared at the frosted tree then lifted up his hand, his mouth open wide surprise.

 

With some concentration he made a ball of snow gather into his hand from thin air. It was incredible! He laughed with joy. He could create frost and snow with barely a thought. Could he… do anything else?

 

He glanced down at the ice which he had just walked across and suddenly wondered if he’d done that too. Then he glanced up at the sky. He’d made snow appear in his hand, so could he make it snow? 

 

He stared up at the sky for a long moment and willed it to snow. For clouds to gather and the skies to open up and free flurries of snow from the whirling white depths. For a long moment nothing happened. Then, just as he was feeling silly and about to give up, the skies filled with clouds and burst open with pure white snow.

 

Jack laughed and spun around happily. The snow spiralled around him with him.

 

Suddenly he felt something catch on him, like a hook caught a fish, and he inexplicable found himself lifted through the air by nothing as if the wind itself were carrying him. He rose up until he was flying above the clouds of snow that he had created and he could see the clear night sky again.

 

Looking down he could see his house, as the clouds had only been gathered around the woods he’d been in. It took a bit of effort, falling down then suddenly being lifted back up again playfully as if the wind that carried him had a mind of its own, but he managed to land on his doorstep.

 

As he open the front door to his home the heat from within hit him. He didn’t realise how cold he was. The cold around him didn’t bother him but there was some sort of internal cold that he could feel and made him shiver and shake.

 

“Jack!” a young girl’s voice cried before he was hit by a brown haired bundle of worry. “Where have you been? Dad’s really mad at you for being gone so long.” His sister, he was sure she was his sister, pulled away from him and stared. “What did you do to your hair? Are your… I thought your eyes were brown. They’re blue now! How did you do that?”

 

Jack reached up and tugged a strand of his hair into his sight. Emma, he was certain her name was Emma, was right. His hair was white, but somehow he felt as if his hair should be brown like his sister’s. “I… er… I don’t remember?” Jack admitted. “You’re… my sister, right? Your name is Emma?”

 

Emma breathed in sharply then nodded. Jack noticed there was a distinct wetness to her eyes.

 

“Yes, Jack. My name is Emma. I’m your little sister. You can tell me anything. Why don’t we sneak upstairs before dad sees us and gets really angry and you tell me what you do remember, OK? I have a feeling we don’t want dad knowing any of,” she waved her hand in his general direction, “this.”


	2. Part Two

“Come on, Hiccup! We’re going to be late!” shouted Rapunzel’s sweet soprano voice from outside the door to his studio apartment. Haiden could imagine her stood waiting patiently with crossed arms, her impossibly long blond hair tied up into a complicated plait trailing across the floor behind her.

 

 _It’s not as hard for her_ , Haiden thought anxiously _, this place doesn’t have memories for her_.

 

Quite a lot had changed in the 4 years since Haiden had last been in Berktown. He’d shot up a good few inches so now he towered over a large majority of people at 6’1”. He’d had an incident with his mutated abilities going awry and nearly died but Wolverine had jumped in and saved him, well, most of him. He now used a prosthetic to get around; it was an impressive piece of work, Starktech (although Haiden had made some… modifications). After that incident Haiden had worked hard to have complete control over his abilities. Mutants should only be dangerous if they wanted to be. And, Haiden had made some close friends that understood him, understood what it was like to be different and discriminated against because of it.

 

So much had changed, and yet here he was back in his hometown about to go to the local High School on a mutant exchange program – even though they probably already had mutants there. Haiden personally thought it was one of Xavier’s plans, there was probably a mutant there that was in desperate need of help and he and Rapunzel were probably expected to find them and convince them to go to Xavier’s school. It wasn’t the first time Xavier had done something similar to this. Probably had to do with the whole mindreading thing he could do.

 

He sighed. He could do this. He wasn’t the same weak person he had been. If anybody messed with him he could very well defend himself, and not even have to hurt them in the process.

 

“Hiccup!” And he had a friend who he knew would stand by him.

 

He pulled open his front apartment door and there stood Rapunzel, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. “Hey.”

 

“There you are!” she gave him a blinding smile. She then turned and walked off. “Come on, we’re going to be late otherwise.”

 

“Sorry.” He followed her into the lift, glanced at himself in the mirror there. He wasn’t just taller, he was broader too. His wings, which had looked massive on him before, now fit his larger frame. He also now had a long black tail with spins travelling up it to match. He looked to his other side to see Rapunzel jumping on her feet excitedly.

 

“It’s going to be great!” Rapunzel enthused as they exited the lift and walked through the hallway and out to the car her parents had gifted her – they were nobility and very rich, Rapunzel had told him. “We’re going to meet so many interesting people and make some good friends! Maybe we’ll meet some more mutants. That’d be cool!”

 

“Oh, yeah,” Haiden replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm, as he closed the car door behind him. “Going to a large public school where there are going to be loads of mutantphobes and bullies. That sounds great.”

 

Rapunzel laughed. “I’m not saying there aren’t going to be bad people, but I’m sure there are going to be good people too.” Haiden looked at her with a raised eyebrow but her eyes were on the road as she drove.

 

“I thought I knew who was good and who was bad. Turns out I was wrong. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. So, I’m not going to be fooled twice.”

 

“One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what happened. You’re being way too cynical, Hic!”

 

Haiden hummed noncommittally. Rapunzel flapped her hand at him dismissively.

 

“Anyway! I’m going to prove you wrong! I’m going to find us some good non-discriminatory friends. You know me, I’m good at that.”

 

Haiden huffed a laugh. “That’s true, I suppose.”

 

“Well, I’m going to prove it to you today! As soon as we get in school.” Rapunzel parked her car and got out. Haiden followed her.

 

“As soon as we get our timetables,” he reminded her, grinning cheekily.

 

“OK, yeah. Good point. After that.”

 

* * *

 

“What about them?” Haiden suggested waving towards a group of people who were holding books that were clearly not just part of their curriculum.

 

“Hm. No, not them,” Rapunzel shook her head and looked around with a careful gaze.

 

Haiden sighed, they had their books and could be finding their way to their first class but no, Rapunzel wanted to find them some friends first. He had no idea what she was looking for so was just pointing out people he thought might be decent enough, though he had noticed that loads of people kept giving him furtive glances. His large black wings and trailing black tail weren’t exactly subtle.

 

“What about-”

 

“Them!” Rapunzel interrupted him suddenly pointing down the hallway at girl with bushy ginger hair and a boy with pure white hair. Well, that was unusual, he had to admit, Haiden had only seen the occasional mutants with white hair before, but maybe it was dyed or something.

 

Rapunzel started dragging him down the corridor towards them and soon he could hear what they were saying.

 

“I’m just saying,” the girl was stating passionately. “Black shouldn’t be discriminating like that. He can’t just give people detention because he feels like it. But, because they’re mutants, nobody even says anything. It’s awful!”

 

The boy was pulling out books from his bag and putting them all in one arm. “I don’t disagree with you or anything, Mer’. But, well, firstly, Aster and I are the ones taking that class and my brother can defend himself just fine. Secondly, he’s usually giving me detention, not Aster. I dunno,” he glanced up at her then looked down to take one more book out of his bag. Was it just Haiden or was his voice oddly familiar? “He seems to have some sort of personal vendetta against me.” He sighed resignedly then began to reach out towards his locker. “I bet it’s the white hair. Nobody believes me when I tell them that it’s not dyed and I’m not some kind of rebel or anything.”

 

The girl turned to reply to him when Rapunzel suddenly dropped in. Haiden had to resist hitting his forehead. They were clearly having a serious conversation.

 

“Hi!” she was about to carry on but the white haired boy jumped and dropped all his books on the floor. Haiden could have sworn that as he jumped a light of some kind passed between his raised hand and his locker. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

 

The girl began laughing furiously but bent down to help the boy to pick up his books, Rapunzel quickly joined them. Haiden picked up a book that had slid across the floor to lay in front of him. “No, it’s OK. I just jump easily, you know,” the boy laughed nervously as if that was only half the statement. “Thanks,” he added as they all stood up and the girls handed him his books.

 

“I’m Rapunzel Corona. I’m new here. We’ve transferred in on the Mutant Exchange program,” Rapunzel introduced herself.

 

“I am Merida Dunbroch. I’m no mutant but I’m pretty mean with a bow an’ arrow!” she shook Rapunzel’s hand confidently. Haiden could tell she had a distinct Scottish accent.

 

“She’s not kidding,” the boy assured Rapunzel. Now that he was up close Haiden felt certain there was something familiar about him.

 

“Well, I think that’s pretty cool,” Rapunzel replied. Merida gave her a great big smile.

 

Letting go of Merida’s hand Rapunzel turned to the boy expectantly. He and Merida exchanged a look before he responded to Rapunzel. “I’m Jack Frost. I hope you don’t mind if I don’t shake your hand.” He gave Rapunzel a crooked smile to which she shook her head reassuringly and dropped her hand.

 

 _Jack_. He looked like Jack. But he’d introduced himself as Jack Frost not Jackson Overland. And Jack had had whiskey brown eyes and deep brown hair not icy blue eyes and snow white hair, so he could just happen to look a lot like Jack. But some instinctual part of Haiden, part of his mutant self, knew that somehow this was the same Jack as he had known.

 

He didn’t know what to say. He looked so different, and not just in appearance. Gone was the carefree boy who wanted to be liked by everybody. There was weariness to his features and trepidation in his eyes. He’d seen that look before in mutants that had been hurt and abused. Mutants like that struggled to trust other people.

 

Haiden thought he had managed to separate himself from the past, but seeing his once best friend look so on edge as if he was forever expected the other shoe to drop, it welled an unexpected anger up in him he didn’t realise he had. He would have expected to not care, seeing as it was Jack that had betrayed him, but then he thought of how Jack initially hadn’t cared that he was a mutant and wanted to be his friend anyway and suddenly the bitterness he had held towards Jack for years lessened. He realised now in hindsight that it didn’t add up. Jack had seemed so earnest that morning and had stood by him all day, why would he suddenly change like that in front of that one group of people? He had even come by to apologise.

 

He needed to understand what had happened, what he had missed. And he had to find a way to wipe away that look from Jack’s face.

 

“Oh no!” Jack exclaimed as he tugged at his locker door. “Oh no, no, no! I did it again!”

 

“You didn’t!” Merida admonished in a highly amused tone.

 

“I did,” Jack slumped forward and banged his head against his locker in frustration.

 

Merida broke out laughing. She laughed so long and so hard she was clutching at her sides.

 

“Thanks, Merida. I’m glad to see that my misfortune amuses you,” Jack still couldn’t help but smile at his friend.

 

“Misfortune? You messed up, admit it!” Merida waved an accusing finger in his direction. Haiden had no idea what was going on and he could see his confusion reflected on Rapunzel’s face.

 

“I was surprised! I didn’t mean to!”

 

“O’ course, you didn’t mean to. You never mean to. Oi! Aster!” Merida turned and shouted down the hallway. An unusually tall boy, even taller than Haiden, with dark skin and shoulder length grey hair turned towards her.

 

“What?” he shouted back to her in an irritated tone.

 

“Jack’s locker froze shut again!” As soon as she said it Merida broke down laughing once more. Jack huffed in indignation. Aster walked up to them in a few quick strides.

 

“Subtle, Merida,” Jack whispered to her in a scathing tone.

 

“Frostbite, please tell me Arrow-head here is joking. That would be the fifth time this year! And we’re not even that far into the year yet, either,” Aster questioned as he towered over them.

 

“I’m sorry, Bunny. It was an accident, I swear. I’m not purposefully being a bother,” Jack’s shoulders slumped as he spoke. Aster sighed, then reached out and ruffled Jack’s hair affectionately.

 

“I know you’re not, Snowflake. Move over and let me brute-force open your locker for you. Let’s hope I don’t have to go all out Bunny to sort this out.” They all backed off a distance at a look from Merida. “And don’t apologise for bothering me,” Aster added turning back to Jack. “You’re my brother - adopted, sure, but my brother. It’s what brothers do. You know that.” Jack gave Aster an affectionate smile and nodded his assent.

 

“Right,” Aster mumbled as he rubbed his hands together in preparation. It was then Haiden noticed that other students had stopped and were watching. They didn’t seem at all surprised.

 

“Is Frost’s locker stuck again?” he heard one person whispered behind him.

 

“I don’t get why he doesn’t just change lockers,” questioned another.

 

“What I don’t understand is how his locker gets so stuck that he needs his brother to break it open for him. And usually in his super strong mutant form too,” added another.

 

Haiden wondered the same things. It was all pretty strange. He was beginning to wonder if it was possible that maybe Jack was a mutant too. He had implied that he had caused his locker to freeze (How? It was summer!). It would explain a lot.

 

This morning was turning out to be pretty interesting.

 

In a strong swift move Aster had grabbed hold of Jack’s locker and was pulled it with all his might. Haiden could see the strain in his biceps. After a short while he gave up and sighed.

 

“Nope. Looks like I’m going to have to go Bunny on this one. You definitely froze this shut really well. Not sure whether to be proud or not,” Aster admitted rolling shoulders.

 

“Sorry,” Jack apologised again. Aster waved him off with a wry smile.

 

Aster bent his legs as if he was preparing himself for a long distance race then sudden he jumped up and swung around in the air so fast he was just a blur even to Haiden’s enhanced vision. When he next landed hard on the ground he had transformed into a 7 foot tall muscled rabbit with fur varying shades of greyscale, a pattern seemed to follow along his biceps and forehead.

 

 _Oh, wow,_ Haiden thought in surprise. He had attended a school full of mutants but he still found himself surprised and amazed when faced with a new mutant. Each mutant was so different from one another. But Aster in particular was imposing and definitely highly unusual.

 

With a single hand Aster reached out and in one swift movement tugged Jack’s locker open. The locker door was pried open with great cracking sound as if breaking strong ice. In fact Haiden saw that the whole of the inside of the locker was covered in ice and snow. It took a great deal of will power for his mouth not to drop open in surprise.

 

“Thanks, Bunny!” Jack exclaimed joyfully.

 

“No probs, Frostbite. Just try not to let it happen too often; you know transforming is tiring for me,” Aster assured Jack with warm spring green eyes. Then he took a step back and re-enacted the previous somersault like movement to land in his original human form. “See you later, alligator,” he gave Merida and Jack a friendly wave as he walked off.

 

“In a while, crocodile,” Jack shouted in response to his back. The rest of the corridor returned to their former action and chatter, seeing that the show was over. “Aw, now I have to dig through all this ice and snow to get my books,” he sighed aggravated.

 

“How did that even happen?” Rapunzel asked curiously. Jack and Merida exchanged panicked glances.

 

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Blondie. It’s just a thing,” Merida attempted to redirect Rapunzel. “But anyway, at least you put all your books in plastic bags,” she said to Jack reassuringly.

 

“Oh, yeah. Learned that the hard way,” Jack agreed with her turning to start digging in his snow encrusted locker.

 

Seeing an opportunity Haiden intercept Jack, “I can give you hand, if you like.” Jack turned around to face him, looking him over in surprise. Haiden was fairly sure he hadn’t noticed him until he’d said anything. Clearly in need of practicing spacial awareness, he mused. “I can melt the snow and ice. Would that make things easier?”

 

“I, um, yeah, it would… Do I know you? You look familiar…” Jack stared at him uncomprehendingly.

 

“Maybe. Did you change your name or something?” Haiden asked him cautiously.

 

“Yeah, I used to be Jackson Overland,” he shuddered as if the name was something poisonous. “But I don’t want to be associated with that name so my sister and I changed our names. She’s still Emma, though.”

 

“I thought so,” Haiden looked him over again, trying to understand how his friend had changed so much. “I’m Haiden Haddock. But you used to call me Hiccup,” he supplied hoping it would help Jack to remember. He didn’t think he was unrecognisable – plus the wings kind of stood out.

 

After a long moment of staring at him trying to remember Jack sighed. “I don’t remember. Sorry… I was in an accident and lost a lot of my memories. I couldn’t even remember my sister Emma at first.”

 

Haiden sucked a breath in surprise. He wanted to ask what had happened but he resisted the urge. Instead he leaned past Jack and lifted a hand before his open locker. Pushing a bit of power through the palm of his hand heat emanated from his hand and soon Jack’s locker was puddle of dripping water, steam and books in sealed plastic bags. Merida handed Jack a towel from her locker and he used it to mop the water up as best he could.

 

“Thanks, Haiden,” Jack said warmly as he pulled his needed books out of his locker and out of the sealed bags into his backpack.

 

“You’re welcome.” Hearing Jack call him Haiden when he wasn’t mad at him was so strange even if it had been years. “And call me Hiccup. It feels kind of weird for you to be calling me my given name. You barely ever did.”

 

Jack glanced up at him. His icy blue eyes earnestly searching Haiden’s forest green ones through snow white bangs. “OK. Hiccup.” He gave him a small smile. It felt like the first flower of spring to Haiden after a long and cold winter. He’d missed Jack. He hadn’t even really realised it because he’d been too busy being bitter instead.

 

“We’d all best be going to class,” Merida interrupted, breaking the moment. “What do you two have first? Maybe we can help you get there.”

 

“German!” Rapunzel piped up enthusiastically.

 

“History,” Haiden informed her calmly. He then faced Jack and held out the book he'd picked up for him. Jack's face light up with surprise and happiness at the small act of kindness.

 

"Thanks!" Jack took the book from him and put it in a plastic bag and into his locker. He closed his locker after that with final click.

 

“Right, well. German is just one floor above me – I have Chemistry. And History is in the same building as Maths which Jack has now,” Merida said business-like.

 

“Yeah, come on. I’ll show how to get there. Which History classroom are you in?” Jack asked helpfully as he began leading him to where he needed to be.

 

Even though Haiden could tell much had changed for both of them, and Jack couldn’t even remember him – and how he was supposed to find out what had really happened if he couldn’t even remember it happening was a real conundrum – Haiden felt certain that quintessentially they were still who they had always been.


	3. Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and lovely reviews. They are much appreciated. Anyway, you've been asking for it so here it is: your much requested update!!!
> 
> Please excuse any minor mistakes - I don't have a beta reader.
> 
> Enjoy!

Haiden eventually found his way to the lunch hall after his third period. He walked into the expansive hall full of people sat round tables chattering away. There was a long line of people queuing for hot lunches. For a moment, as he looked around this room filled to the brim with people _he didn’t know_ , he felt suddenly very much alone. After 4 years of studying at Xavier’s Haiden had grown used to knowing most everyone in the school, and coming here where he knew no one was a shock to the system. It was lonely. Taking a deep breathe he steadied himself. Rapunzel would be here soon. He wasn’t alone.

 

And Jack was here too. Even if he couldn’t remember him.

 

“Hiccup,” and there Jack was, with his startlingly pure white hair and ice blue eyes, standing before him giving him a seemingly confident friendly smile and yet wringing his hands nervously. “I… was wondering if you wanted to sit with us outside?” The end of his sentence rose in pitch and trailed off as if he was even questioning himself. While his eyes seemed to hold Haiden’s forest green gaze he noticed that he was periodically glancing away. The nervous habit concerned Haiden because he knew Jack didn’t used to have any problems holding eye contact. The Jack Haiden had known had been the epitome of a social butterfly; exuberant and outgoing, always with a bright cheeky smile and story to tell to enrapture the crowd.

 

“That would be nice, thanks,” he replied with a small smile.

 

Jack nodded his assent and then led him out through the glass doors exiting the lunch hall to the wide open field next door. There were a few benches dotted around with pupils occupying them. Jack lead him around the corner of the building Haiden had had History in this morning (and Jack had had Maths in too, he knew) to a more secluded area where there were a few pupils sat around on the grass munching on their packed lunches and gossiping including the girl with bright bushy ginger hair, Merida, the dark skinned, grey haired bunny mutant, Aster, from this morning and Rapunzel. Haiden felt himself relax at the familiar faces.

 

Jack settled himself down between Aster and Merida, Haiden noticed that they naturally shuffled over and gave him more room, and Haiden took that as his cue to sit down beside Rapunzel. He curled his tail around his sitting form and lifted his wings until they sat comfortably behind him.

 

“Had a good morning?” Rapunzel asked him with a welcoming smile.

 

“Eh. It wasn’t terrible,” he gave a lopsided smile. “How was your morning?”

 

“It was fascinating! And boring,” she giggled at the polar opposites of the adjectives she used to describe her morning.

 

“Sounds about right,” a tall boy about their age with oak brown hair said as he sat down next to Haiden. He held out his hand to the two of them. “Rider, Flynn Rider.” He gave them a crooked smile that Haiden was sure he thought was meant to be attractive. Rapunzel gave him an odd look at his weird expression as she shook his hand. Haiden had to smother a smile – Rapunzel never noticed when people flirted with her.

 

“Haiden Haddock, but my friends call me Hiccup,” he carefully intercepted.

 

“Rapunzel Corona,” Rapunzel added as if his introduction reminded her of their conversation.

 

“May I say you have the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen?” Flynn said flirtatiously. Rapunzel looked slightly uncomfortable from the concentrated attention.

 

“Why, thank you very much, Flynn,” Haiden had to suppress a laugh at Flynn’s confused expression. Haiden had very green eyes too and Flynn had just introduced himself to both of them. “I’m flattered that you noticed.”  Haiden flapped a hand as if he was overly warm from the compliment.

 

Rapunzel looked between the two before leaning towards Haiden and saying in an undertone. “I don’t think he’s really your type.” It was at that he couldn’t hold it in any longer and broke down laughing.

 

Once he caught his breathe he said, “You’re right, Rapunzel, he’s not. I was just teasing.” He turned his gaze on Flynn. “Sorry, Flynn. You’re not my type.” He raised an eyebrow as Flynn seemed about to protest to even flirting with him but seemed to change his mind at the last second.

 

“Oh, but, you’re just so beautiful. Please, would you consider giving me a chance?” Flynn exclaimed leaning down into Haiden’s lap, catching the attention of the others.

 

“I’m terribly sorry, Flynn. I just… You’re not what I’m looking for in a person! I can’t let just let anyone be with this _beautiful_ hunk of dragon mutant,” he flapped his wings slightly to add effect and let his tail trail up to touch Flynn’s cheek. He could see Rapunzel, Merida, Aster and Jack laughing at them out of the corner of his eye. Flynn flirting must be a regular occurrence.

 

Flynn reached up and laid a hand over the tip of his tail touching his face and threw the other across his forehead, “Oh, woe is me. I have met the love of my life and yet he has instantly rejected me. Oh, my poor poor broken heart!”

 

Haiden had to laugh, causing Flynn to break out into laughter himself too.

 

“That…was beautiful,” Jack told them matter-of-factly, still laughing slightly and wiping a tear away from his eye.

 

“Aye, that was hilarious, you two,” Merida nodded in agreement.

 

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced,” Aster remarks once they’ve all calmed down a bit holding out his hand. “The name’s E. Aster Bunnymund. Most people call me Aster, except family, like Jack, call me Bunny, which is both a play on my surname and my mutation.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Aster,” Haiden took his hand and shook it firmly. “I’m Haiden Haddock, but my friends call me Hiccup. It’s a family thing.”

 

Aster’s grip on his hand tightened for a moment and he stared at him thoughtfully. “Did you used to live around here? I think Emma’s mentioned you before.”

 

“Yeah…” he glanced in Jack’s direction. “Jack and I used to be best friends but then I had to move away to attend Xavier’s,” he added honestly.

 

“Hm.” Aster nodded. “Yeah, she’s said something to that affect. Though, I always wanted to know…” His gaze turned steely and dangerous. “If you were best friends why didn’t you ever try to contact Jack?”

 

“I…” Haiden turned away. The memory was an old one but one that still haunted him. “I don’t really want to talk about it in front of other people. But, basically… We had a really bad falling out and… I said we weren’t friends anymore.” He sighed. “It happened right before I left. I was so angry and bitter. I didn’t want to talk about it. And then I was so busy with my new life. I just… I pretended that it didn’t matter.” Rapunzel stared at Haiden with a suddenly comprehending expression but didn’t say anything.

 

“It…” Jack suddenly spoke up. “It was my fault… I think.”

 

There was a long silence.

 

“I used to think that too. But… Seeing you now I’m wondering if I’m missing something. I wish you could remember so I could find out what happened from your perspective.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Jack slouched down and stared at the grass.

 

“It’s not your fault you have amnesia,” Haiden reached over and shoved his shoulder lightly. Then laughed as he realised he had to reach down slightly. “I can’t believe I’m taller than you now. You were always taller than me. This is pretty weird.”

 

Jack glanced up at him through his bangs and gave him a small smile. “Yeah. I do keep on having to remind myself to look up at you so I think I keep expecting you to be shorter than me.”

 

“Well, you know what I say,” piped up Merida in a decisive tone. “The past is the past and the present is now. This stuff all happened _years_ ago. I’m not saying it’s not important. I’m just saying… Years have gone by and you’ve both probably changed a lot anyway. This is a completely new friendship between the two of you. Old issues should be left behind in the old friendship,” she crossed her arms and nodded her head with certainty.

 

Aster was nodding beside her. “I appreciate you not wanting to talk about this stuff in detail in front of others. That’s pretty decent of you. But, Merida is right it’s probably best you two have a fresh start.”

 

“Well, I thought that was what we were doing,” admitted Haiden with a sheepish grin. He then looked at Jack, catching and holding his gaze. “That OK with you?”

 

Jack gave him a bright smile reminiscent of the ones from when they were younger.

 

“Definitely.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Thanks for the lift, Punzie,” Haiden gave her a grateful smile as he exited her car that was parked outside his family home. He could see that not much had changed in the years he had been away on the outside of the house.

 

“It’s no problem, Hiccup. Give me a call if you need a lift back to our apartment complex later,” Rapunzel assured him. “Have fun!”

 

“Thanks. I’ll do my best,” he waved after the departing form of her car, the sun reflecting off its lime green outside as she drove away.

 

Taking a deep breathe he turned once more to face his family home. He had very rarely seen his family since attending Xavier’s and was slightly intimidated and yet excited at the prospect of seeing them again. Also, he had spied a collection of cars parked in their driveway and was fairly sure that his dad had invited his whole extended family to celebrate. That was a nerve wracking prospect all on its own.

 

His knocked on the deep brown front door with decisiveness. He could hear shouts from the inside of the house coming ever closer to him.

 

In a moment, the door was thrown open and he was hit by cacophony of noise.

 

“Hiccup!” shouted his 3rd cousins Roisin and Theo Thorston, otherwise known as Ruffnut and Tuffnut, with great exuberance.

 

“Hi, Ruff. Hi, Tuff,” Haiden greeted them in a far more muted tone. The twins swung around and grabbed him by each arm.

 

“Well, what are you waiting for?” asked Ruffnut briskly.

 

“Yeah, no lollygagging! There’s a barbecue out back,” Tuffnut pulled on his arm with urgency.

 

“And Stoick said no barbecue for anyone until you get there.”

 

“So, you need to be getting there now!”

 

Haiden laughed good humouredly and allowed the determined twins to drag him down the hallway and out to the wide open grassy garden in which a large crowd of his extended family were gathered. A loud cheer rose as they all saw him.

 

“Let the feast,” the twins proclaimed together, “begin!”

 

The crowd of people who had previously been loitering around in small groups around the garden all congregated in one direction where tables full of plates and bowls of buns, burgers, sausages, salad and crisps stood and his father was flipping some burgers on a grill.

 

“Hiccup, my son!” and then he was enveloped in a warm loving hug that only a mother could give. “It’s good to see you.”

 

Haiden reached around and hugged his mum’s slim form, taking comfort from her familiar warmth and smell. “It’s good to see you too, mum.”

 

Valka pulled back and looked him over. “You look well. And you’ve grown so much. Though,” she glanced at his prosthetic, “I feel you have quite a few stories to tell.”

 

“Well,” he laughed nervously. “I suppose I do.”

 

“Hiccup,” he turned to see his 2nd cousin Astrid Hofferson (who had refused a nickname when they were younger proclaiming it stupid) and 3rd cousin Finley Ingerson, otherwise known as Fishlegs, stood nervously behind her.

 

“Astrid and Fishlegs!” he untangled himself from his mum and turned fully to face his cousins.

 

Four years prior, when he had first become a mutant, there had been a tentative nature to their relationships. Haiden had seemed so foreign to what they had been used to and their ingrained mutantphobia caused by the prejudiced society they lived in had initially created a rift between the cousins. Time had allowed that rift to close between them as they had adjusted to a new mind set.

 

However, it was nothing on how his 1st cousin Stuart Jorgenson, otherwise known as Snotlout, who had been trying to be a part of the popular boys at school had reacted. So determined was he to be one of the ‘cool kids’ at school, and so influenced by others’ prejudice who didn’t even know Haiden, he had made a big deal of outright rejecting Haiden in front of other kids. Haiden may not have been around to see it but he had heard of it from Astrid in angry letters.

 

“How was your first day at Berktown Academy? Are the teachers there as crazy as the rumours say they are?” Astrid asked turning and leading the three of them towards the line to the barbecue, the twins having already disappeared to gorge themselves silly.

 

“It was… actually pretty good,” Haiden paused deliberating. “I saw Jack.”

 

Both of his cousins turned around swiftly to face him with serious expressions.

 

“W-what happened?” queried Fishlegs.

 

“Talk,” demanded Astrid.

 

Haiden took a deep breath wondering how to explain the situation to them.

 

“Its fine,” he assured them. “We decided to make a fresh start.”

 

“So, what about him caused you to decide to give him another chance after all these years?” asked Fishlegs curiously.

 

“Well, he… he’s really different. Not in a good or bad way. Just different. He looks utterly different – he has hair as white as Storm’s – and eyes as blue as ice.”

 

“But that makes no sense. I mean, I guess he could have bleached his hair white but his eyes… could he be wearing contacts?” Astrid interrupted in confusion.

 

“No, he said it’s natural. He said… well, he said he had an accident but he told me that when he was referring to his amnesia. He can’t remember me at all.”

 

“That’s awful,” empathised Fishlegs.

 

“You think the accident may be connected to his change in appearance?” asked Astrid.

 

“Yeah, maybe. But I’m more concerned by other changes really,” admitted Haiden quietly.

 

“Concerned?” Astrid stared at him as if her gaze could expel to her all his secrets.

 

“Well, his name’s changed and he has an adopted brother. Which isn’t concerning by itself but combine that with how he’s constantly nervous and jumpy,” Haiden paused thoughtfully before lowering his tone further and whispering to the other two. They leaned in close to hear him.

 

“He reminds of the mutants that come to Xavier’s from abusive homes.”

 

Both Astrid and Fishlegs took in a deep breath at the thought. Although, they had both shared animosity towards Jack for hurting their cousin so soundly, they both remembered the kind, generous and fun-loving boy who they had grown up with. The thought that something so terrible might have happened to him to have him remind Haiden of abuse victims… It shook them.

 

“He has an adopted brother and changed his name,” reasoned Fishlegs forlornly. “It does imply that something bad might have happened with his home life that caused those extreme changes to happen. Something that might have affected his personality.” Astrid hummed in agreement at his logic.

 

“Yeah.” Haiden thought back to the light he had thought travel between Jack’s hands and his locker which had then been inexplicably frozen shut. Jack was a mystery wrapped up in an enigma.

 

“But, I also met his friends, Merida and Flynn, and his brother, Aster. They all seem really nice,” Haiden added trying to lighten the suddenly serious mood.

 

“That’s good,” Astrid gave him a hardy pat on his shoulder that almost made him stumble. Astrid was very active and as such deceptively strong for her slight feminine appearance.

 

“Rapunzel liked them. And Flynn certainly knows how to take a joke,” he smiled thinking back on the hilarious lunch encounter. “Merida reminds me a lot of you, Astrid, actually. I think you’d like her.” Astrid nodded at him in approval. “And Aster, well, he seems really protective of Jack,” they shared a glance. “And he’s also a bunny mutant. He transforms and his mutant form is incredible!”

 

“Wow!” exclaimed Fishlegs in excitement. “A bunny mutant? I wonder how that looks…” he trailed off thoughtfully.

 

Finally, the three of them had reached the tables of food and began piling food on their plates. Everyone in Haiden’s family knew how to eat heartily.

 

“When he transforms he’s 7 foot tall, humanoid, grey with markings on his fur,” Haiden said appeasing his cousin’s thirst for knowledge.

 

“That does sound incredible!” Fishlegs looked like he wished he could be writing all this down.

 

“7 foot,” Astrid whistled. “Is he 7 foot normally?”

 

“Well, he’s certainly tall. But not 7 foot, no.”

 

“Shame,” Astrid said dismissively. Haiden wondered what she was thinking about.

 

“But, you know,” Fishlegs said sudden as if struck by sudden comprehension. “If Aster is Jack’s adopted brother and they are close enough for him to be protective of Jack…” He turns to stare at Haiden with his watery blue eyes trying to communicate how significant this was. “Then Jack definitely can’t be a mutantphobe. So, what happened between you two 4 years ago… It doesn’t make sense.”

 

“No, it doesn’t,” affirmed Haiden. “Thinking about it now, when Jack found out I was a mutant that morning he didn’t care at all. His actions that same evening make no sense at all.” Haiden shrugged. “As much as I would like the mystery solved, Jack has amnesia and doesn’t remember any of it.” Fishlegs hummed thoughtfully, clearly making up his own theories on the matter.

 

“Haiden, my boy!” Haiden turned to face his dad who he had just arrived next to. Stoick plopped a burger in his bun for him and added some brown sauce, just like he knew his son preferred. “It’s good to see you. I trust your first day at Berktown Academy went well.”

 

“It’s good to see you too, dad. It was pretty good, actually,” Haiden said amiably. He loved his dad dearly but had always found it difficult to talk to him. He was more like his mum and for many years the two of them had found it difficult to understand one another. It was only when his father had come to accept – and be proud of – their differences could they finally find a common space to communicate.

 

“Stoick, honestly. Go be with your son. I’ll man the barbecue,” intercepted close family friend Gavin Belch, affectionately known as Gobber, grabbing the serving utensil and herding Stoick away from the barbecue. Stoick allowed his friend to manoeuvre him.

 

“As long as you don’t eat all the burgers and sausages for yourself!” Gobber laughed uproariously.

 

“It’s good to see you, lad. But you best go be with your father for a while. I know it may not look it but he’s missed you just as much as your mother,” Gobber told Haiden in an undertone.

 

Haiden nodded at his friend and mentor, then turned away to follow his father. Tonight was turning out to be a fun filled but exhausting evening.


	4. Part Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly from Jack's perspective, but with some swapping between him and Hiccup/Haiden later in the chapter.
> 
> A look into Jack's home life and then some chemistry in more than one way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Hiccup/Haiden is referred to as Hiccup because it's from Jack's perspective, but when he's referred to as Haiden it's because it's his perspective. There is a fair amount of perspective swapping in the second half of the chapter and I hope it's not too confusing. 
> 
> Also, I literally can't remember any chemistry at all so I'm sorry if any of that's wrong.

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.

Jack groaned sleepily and stuffed his head under his pillow in an attempt at drowning out the annoying buzzing from his mobile’s alarm.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Sighing in frustration, he reached out and patted the surface of his bedside table, attempting to sightlessly find his mobile.

Thump.

His hand had hit the edge of something and succinctly he heard something fall to the floor. His phone’s alarm was somewhat muffled now so he assumed that he’d knocked his mobile to the floor. With another deep sigh, Jack dragged himself upright. He took a moment to allow his mind to awaken. He then swung his body around and slipped his feet from under his thin duvet to touch the floor. Stretching and yawning expansively, he heard his back click and finally felt awake enough to get up. Jack leaned down and felt along his royal blue carpet for his phone. Finding it, he finally swiped his phone to ‘dismiss’ the alarm and set it back on his bedside table.

He dressed sluggishly, as always. He threw off his pyjamas and pulled on some plain black socks and Indigo blue boxers before dragging on the same skinny jeans as the day previous. Opening his wardrobe he riffled through his collection of jumpers and decided on an azure blue one, a light to middle toned blue that was much lighter than the previous day’s navy blue jumper that matched his more light hearted cheery mood that morning. After slipping a plain black short sleeved top on underneath, he pulled on his chosen jumper, ran a comb through his unnaturally natural snow white hair, and declared himself ready for the day.

“Morning,” Jack said yawning as he wandered into the dinning room and sat down at the table across from his adopted father, Nicholas North, who sat whittling a piece of wood. North was a tall and broad man, muscular from working many hours in his workshop, with kind crystal blue eyes shadowed by big dark grey eyebrows that contrasted heavily with his swept back pure white hair and long beard.

“Morning, Jack,” North bellowed in reply, flinging his arms open in a welcoming gesture, narrowly missing knocking his morning mug of hot chocolate (with cream and marshmallows) over.

“Good morning, Jack,” trilled Tiana “Tooth” North as she flew in from the kitchen and placed a bowl of cereals and a jug of milk in front of Jack. Very much unlike North, Tiana was a slight woman, with an olive undertone to her warm tawny skin, striking hot pink eyes and many multi coloured feathers smattered throughout her arched bob cut ash brown hair that led into her feathered body, covered as it was a flowy yellow top, cut down the back to allow free movement of her wings, and loose green chinos, although unhidden on her ankles and feet by her sandals.   “Did you remember to brush your teeth, dear?”

“Yes, Tooth,” mumbled Jack sleepily as he picked at his breakfast. Tooth giggled at how sweet he looked.

“Good. Don’t forget to floss!” As an orthodontist Tooth cared greatly about the condition of her family’s teeth.

Jack nodded agreeably.

“Anyway, Bunny’s gone for his morning jog, but Emma is yet to wake. Did you want to wake her or shall I?” Tooth asked encouragingly. Jack adored his little sister but was now so nervous to express his adoration he often needed small prompts and opportunities to feel allowed to do so. Internally Tooth wanted to strangle his father, but outwardly her warm smile never wavered.

“I’ll do it, but thanks for offering, Tooth,” Jack gave her a big grin before shuffling off to wake his sister. Tooth’s heart always melted a little more every time he smiled. _He has such perfect teeth_ , she sighed.

Jack eased Emma’s door open gently and slipped into her room. Carefully stepping around the scattered sports equipment she had lying about he reached her bedside unhindered. Spying a very pale grey tuft of hair sticking out from under covers Jack winds himself up to some playful wake up time.

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey!” Jack shouted as he reaching and tactfully tickled his little sister’s snoozing sides. Emma screamed, scrambled away from Jack’s twitching fingers, got her legs twisted up in her covers, and fell unceremoniously to the carpeted floor below her.

“Jack!” she shouted, indignant.

“Emma!” Jack replied teasingly, singing a little tune with her name.

“Argh!” Emma threw back her head, bashing it against her bedside table. “Ow. Shit.”

Jack gasped. “Language!”

“I’m not a little kid anymore, Jack. I can swear all I want. And you shouldn’t tickle me like that anymore either. It’s childish,” Emma grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting up at her big brother. Some of her long hair fell into her eyes and she uncrossed her arms to swipe it away in a fast agitated movement.

Two years previous, when she had been only eleven and Jack fifteen, while they had still lived with their dad, Emma had, as a sign of solidarity to her brother, saved up every penny she could, then snuck out of the house one Saturday morning to a nearby hairdressers and had her hair bleached as light as possible then dyed the palest shade of grey available. She would have had them bleach it white the same as her brother’s hair but she had spoken with the hairdresser previously and been told that bleaching her dusky brown to white would probably break her hair and ruin it entirely. So, she had compromised with bleaching it to a platinum blonde then dying it a pale grey.

“Now we both have old people hair,” she had said to Jack’s shocked and stuttering face, stubbornly crossing her arms much as she did now. Although he’d always denied doing so, he’d teared up at her words and pulled her in for a quick hug and hair ruffle.

She’d kept the hairstyle as much as she could ever since and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. No one could convince otherwise. Partially because she had come to like the colour on her, but mostly because she knew that her brother still felt _wrong_ , like everything about himself was alien and unacceptable to the world around him. Emma, normal in every sense of the word in the eyes of their society, dying her hair an unusual colour reminiscent of her brother’s had helped him feel like an outlier. And then, when they had been adopted by the kind and loving Norths and met Bunny, their adopted brother who was a whole two months older than Jack and was confident, strong willed, and a mutant and proud of it, they had seen his stormy grey hair, another ‘old people’ colour just like theirs, and Jack had finally smiled a unrestrained smile for the first time in _years_. He had regained some of his lost confidence in himself, allowing him to finally make new friends when he started High School.

So, Emma kept her hair grey and, as far as she was concerned, always would.

But right now she didn’t want her brother to smile, right now she wanted to kick him in the shin and have him grovel apologetically on the floor for disturbing her slumber in such a childish undignified manner.

“I should wash your mouth out with soap for using such dirty language,” said Jack in response with a Cheshire cat grin sneaking its way across his face. “Or… Maybe I’ll just tell Tooth.”

Emma gasped. “Tattletale! No, you won’t!”

“Won’t I?”

“Please,” Emma begged, getting up on her knees and grabbing at the edge of his jumper. “I’m sorry! I won’t swear again. Don’t tell Tooth!”

“We-ell,” Jack said mock thoughtfully, tapping his chin with one index finger. “Maybe I won’t. If you’ll make it worth my while.”

 “I’ll do the washing up for you for a week!” Emma said hopefully.

“Hmmm…”

“ _Two_ weeks.”

“I dunno. That was a pretty bad swear word.”

“A month, then! But that’s my final offer.”

“OK!” Jack agreed instantly. “It’s ten to eight and Bunny will surely want to leave at eight so you should really think about getting ready. Ta-ra!” Jack ran out of her room, kicking one of the footballs lying about into her cupboard door accidentally as he did so.

“Emma’s awake!” he proclaimed as he sat back down into his chair and began slurping down his soggy breakfast.

“That’s good! Bunny is back from run now, in shower and be down soon, so Tooth and I must go for work. Workshop won’t wait forever! Take care and have wonderful day at school. Пока!” North set down his finished wooden figurine of a dolphin in front of Jack, ruffled his hair affectionately, then stomped off.

“Bye, sweetheart,” Tooth flitted in from the hallway, likely from her and North’s room, pressed a kiss to Jack’s forehead, and then flew off.

“Bye, North. Bye, Tooth,” Jack called after them once his mouth was empty. Looking down at his empty bowl Jack decided he was thirsty and went into the kitchen, dropped his bowl off next to the sink, grabbed a glass and poured some water out of the tap into it.

“Mornin’, Frostbite,” said Bunny as he entered into the kitchen and to also grab himself a glass of water.

Jack jumped, not expecting Bunny to come in that precise moment. Frost spread across his glass from his fingertips, and danced across the counter his other hand had been leaning on. “Oh, no,” he stared horrified at the frosted counter. “I-I-I’m so so sorry! I didn’t–”

“No harm done,” Bunny interrupted him, placing a reassuring long fingered hand on his shoulder stopping Jack’s stuttered apologies. “I know you can’t control it very well. You’ll get better. You just have to be more confident. That’s all.” Bunny gave a small affectionate smile, his spring green eyes warm and comforting. Jack’s shoulders unwound and his jaw loosened. Bunny grabbed a towel from under the sink and started moping the frost up. “See, easily rectified.”

“Thank you,” Jack mumbled.

“No probs… It’s what big brothers are for, right?” Jack looked up startled, staring into Bunny’s eye’s uncertainly.

Every time Bunny called them brothers, especially when he emphasised the whole ‘big brother’ part, Jack was surprised and unsure whether Bunny really meant it. Whether he really accepted a screw up like Jack as family willingly. Whether he actually _wanted_ to care for him as his big brother. Everything, from his expression, his actions, to the way he kept reinforcing the idea by bringing it up repeatedly, said that he did. But some part of Jack still doubted that someone as awesome as Bunny really wanted to choose to be related to someone as messed up as Jack.

“Right,” Jack said, trying to sound sure. Bunny patted him on the shoulder affectionately.

“I’m ready!” Emma proclaimed sliding sideways into the kitchen with her socks on the wooden floorboards. She ducked under Bunny’s outstretched arm and grabbed her mobile from where it sat charging next to the fridge.

“Are we going or not?”

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey,” said a familiar nasally voice from next to him. Jack turned and saw Hiccup stood facing him. He was as tall and drop dead gorgeous (in Jack’s opinion anyway) as the day previous and if Jack had been a more confident individual ( _or cared less about his general wellbeing_ , he thought as he eyed the long scaly black tail swishing behind Hiccup) he might have even flirted with him a bit. Before he found out that they had some unresolved issues from years ago that was apparently bad enough to have ruined their friendship that _Jack couldn’t remember_. Yeah, that totally ruined any chances Jack might have had at having something, he hadn’t quite worked out what he wanted, with the seriously attractive man. Damn.

“Hi,” Jack said, giving his best smile, which, considering that they were in a chemistry classroom full of people glancing at them not-so-subtly with animosity and whispering about them – him for his weird white hair and mutant brother and Hiccup for being a mutant – and that there were lots of chemicals in this room that Jack could accidentally freeze and cause some terrible accident if not careful, wasn’t actually all that great. Jack felt incredibly anxious every time he had a chemistry lesson. It was literally the most terrifying part of his day.

“Mind if I sit here?” Hiccup asked, motioning at the seat beside Jack.

“S-sure!” Jack pulled his bag off the table to clear room for Hiccup to sit and deposited it across the back of his squeaky plastic chair.

Hiccup sat down beside him, placing his own bag by his side, and groaned grasping at his leg with the prosthetic.

“Are you… OK?” Jack ventured to ask. Hiccup seemed nice enough, he probably wouldn’t snap if Jack initiated conversation. Probably.

“Yeah. Just phantom pains. Nothing to worry about,” Hiccup smiled disarmingly at Jack. It was a hard feeling to describe, but as soon as Jack saw him smile Jack felt safe, protected, like nothing could go wrong because Hiccup was with him. Like if anything did go wrong then Hiccup would always work out a way to sort it out and even do so, would always take his side, would always help him if he struggled with no judgement. It was hard for him to put his finger on why he felt like that.

“You sure you don’t need to take any pain killers or something?”

“Won’t do much,” he said through gritted teeth. He rubbed at his leg in a circular motion. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it. I’ll be fine.”

“O… K…” But Jack did worry about it. Jack may have only met Hiccup the day before, but he cared about him intensely like he’d known him years ( _which he had_ , whispered a voice at the back at his head). “I guess we share chemistry, huh?”

Hiccup gave him a sideways glance. Jack sudden reviewed what he had just said and how it could be misconstrued and realised that it sounded a bit like a terrible, awful come on. He could feel his cheeks warm up greatly as he blushed pink, which was the brightest colour his body, with its much cooler body temperature, could muster, across his cheeks and down his neck. “Er…”

“Yeah, guess we do,” Hiccup said slyly. Jack wasn’t sure if he was replying to the intended question or the unintended flirtation or both. He tucked his hands securely under his bum so that they couldn’t freeze anything visible or dangerous, as he fought a losing battle against the blush travelling to his ears now as well at the thought that Hiccup might have flirted _back_. Ugh, he was pathetic.

Haiden smirked, though Jack didn’t notice as he was too far in his own head trying to keep calm and keep control over his powers. _Pink’s a nice colour on him_ , he thought. A warm feeling swelled in his chest, mixing with some form of longing that made him yearn to reach out and caress Jack’s blushing cheeks, tug on his pink ears and stroke down his flushed neck. Haiden bit the inside of cheek, ignoring the sudden urge. For one thing, he’d seen Jack refuse contact with Rapunzel the day previous, for another, that was a far too intimate touch to request for in classroom full of people. _It’s still cute how got so embarrassed, though_ , he admitted to himself.

“Right, class,” said Miss. Smith as strode into the classroom. “Today we are going to do a little experiment. Gather around as I show you what to do. I want you to play close attention. No messing around. And then afterwards I want you in pairs doing this yourself.”

Jack followed Hiccup as they walked to the front and watched Miss. Smith but his mind wasn’t in it. No, he was trying to unwind from getting so embarrassed and reign in his powers that just wanted to freeze something. It was taking literally all of his mental concentration to not frost up the pen and paper in his hands.

“You don’t mind pairing up with me, right?” Hiccup’s voice interrupted Jack internal struggle. He glanced up at him surprised. Was the demonstration over already? He glanced over and confirmed that, yes, he’d missed it.

 _Well, that'll make doing this a ton easier_ , he thought sarcastically.

“Of course not,” he grinned at Hiccup as reassuringly as possible. He followed him back to their table. He didn’t doubt that Hiccup would make a good chemistry partner for a second.

Oh.

He didn’t doubt Hiccup at all. Felt safe around him. Knew deep inside himself he could rely on him not to let him down. It all made sense to him now.

He _trusted_ Hiccup, fully, unconditionally, irrevocably. He trusted him like he could never ever remember trusting anybody except his sister.

Well, that was certainly something he would have to think about later. That he fully trusted someone he had met the previous day, who claimed to have once been his best friend but had never contacted him even once over the last 4 years that he couldn’t even remember at all. Jack felt a surge of confusion mixed with anger build up inside him that he instantly tried to smother. Jack sighed, this line of thought was really messing him up emotionally and he really needed to stop thinking about it, until he got somewhere private, and calm down.

Crack.

Jack jumped, icing the floor beneath his feet (which wasn’t too noticeable, thank goodness) and looked down at the pen in hand that had frozen so suddenly it had cracked in places. It was completely useless now. Jack wanted to throw it out the window he felt so frustrated with himself.

Haiden’s head snapped up and he stared at the pen in Jack’s hand. _How did that happen?_ He wondered, his mind going to the previous day with the frozen locker. He was seriously starting to suspect a mutation at work here. Possibly elemental in nature or one to do with good and bad luck, perhaps?   _It was kind of ironic_ , he mused, _that my friend,_ _who I thought a mutantphobe, may actually be a mutant himself._

He thought to that fateful morning where Jack had so openly accepted Haiden’s mutation, and he wondered if Jack had never been a mutantphobe after all.

Then he thought of that same evening where, when faced by other people, Jack had not defended Haiden, no, he had _agreed_ with them.

Argh! He wasn’t sure anymore! The uncertainty was killing him. He just wanted to ask Jack and be done with it, but Jack didn’t remember and…

And Jack was staring at his pen with a mixed expression of downright terrified and frustrated.

Haiden was starting to get really worried about him.

“Jack?”

Jack looked up and caught Hiccup gazing between his pen and him. Quickly he threw the pen across the room and into the bin where it hit the edge and then bounced in ( _Score!_ His internal child celebrated). He pasted a tenuous smile on his face. “Can I borrow a pen? I broke mine.”

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at him. “Sure.” He pulled out a spare pen from his pencil case and held it out to Jack. He furrowed his eyebrows debating.

“Thanks,” Jack said and leaned forward to take it. The edges of Hiccup’s wing brushed against his back as he entered into Hiccup’s space. He had to suppress a shiver at the contact. Jack noticed Hiccup smelt like smoke from a bonfire, leather, fresh breezes and grass all at once. His mouth went dry at how nice, both comforting, like the smell of a freshly brewed cup of tea, and yet enticing, like the smell of baked bread straight of the oven, Hiccup smelt. He wanted to bask in his scent forever.

 _Stop it with the weird thoughts! Stupid brain, stupid urges_ , Jack wanted to kick himself. Quick as a flash, he grabbed the pen off of Hiccup, barely feeling how warm his hand was against his own unusually cool one. He found that comforting as well. He wanted to fall into that warmth and never get up.

 _What’s wrong with me?_ He queried irritated with himself, confused by his spiralling thoughts and desires. He knew he found Hiccup attractive, but he didn’t expect to find it so hard to control himself and remain a respectable human being around him. Everything about him felt familiar, safe and comforting. It allowed him to subconsciously and instinctively bring his guard down and subsequently the attraction and desires he was feeling were more profound than he had ever felt before.

It made concentrating on suppressing his powers harder when he had to fight to control _himself_.

“So, erm, to review,” Haiden began trying to change the subject as Jack looked incredibly uncomfortable and confused. “We’re supposed to be doing an Iodine clock reaction, nothing too complicated. We just have to pour in hydrogen peroxide with sulfuric acid into the beaker and then add this solution, which is potassium iodide, sodium thiosulfate, and starch. I’ve done this before. It should change colour, that’s all. Nothing to worry about. Nothing dangerous and nothing complicated. So… er… You want to do it?” Haiden ended abruptly, realising that in his effort to distract he had begun rambling.

Jack gazed at him as he spoke, leaning one cheek against his hand, a small smile of fond exasperation spreading unwittingly across his face. When Haiden glanced at him to gauge how much he’d embarrassed himself he felt his breath catch at that tiny smile, because it was a real smile and, small as it was, it light up his face. Haiden suddenly realised that Jack was beautiful with his ethereal sky blue eyes lit up by this forgotten happiness, a small flush dusting his pale as marble cheeks, complimented by his impossibly pure white hair. Jack’s face was made for real smiles, Haiden decided.

Haiden cleared his throat, realising that they were just staring at each other. Jack sat up straight and blushed pink again. “Er, yeah, sure,” he managed to croak in reply.

He reached over to the hydrogen peroxide bottle but as soon as his hand neared it the whole bottle froze suddenly and the glass around it shattered. Jack snapped back his hand and held it to his chest protectively, a clearly frightened expression marring his face.

“What happened over here?” Miss. Smith asked in a no nonsense tone of voice.

“I… er… I…” Jack stuttered, choked up. What could he say? He glanced at Hiccup desperately.

“Don’t know, miss. There must have been some chemical inside of our Hydrogen Peroxide bottle that reacted when Jack tried to open it. Must have reacted with something in the air.”

“I, well, that’s very strange. You boys alright?”

“Yes, miss.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. Why don’t you go and join that table over there with their experiment?”

They nodded in acquiescence. Miss. Smith strode off to tell off some girls at the back who were chattering instead of working.

Haiden turned to Jack, his expression clear of any emotion, a tactic he had developed when his mind was whirling with thoughts that he didn't want to give away. He was certain now that Jack had a mutation that gave him the ability to freeze stuff. He’d seen him do it three times now and he was anything but stupid. Jack shrunk under his intense but expressionless gaze.

“S-s-sorry,” he mumbled, staring down at the floor and wringing his hands fearfully.

“I can tell you probably don’t want to, but we need to talk about this,” Haiden motioned at frozen and broken bottle of hydrogen peroxide that spilt across their table. “Later.”

Jack glanced up at Haiden and then down at the floor a few times.

“OK.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in ages! Thank you to everyone who waited patiently.
> 
> I have been writing my own original novel and it's literally taken all of my creativity and time to do so. However, I finally updated this for two reasons, firstly, because someone recently commented on this story asking me to update, reminding me that people like this story (like my writing, yay!), and secondly, because I've been mentally in too much of a mess to write my original novel (as it's very challenging for me to write) since my dog, who I absolutely adored, died (in a really awful traumatising way) and since I found out one of my best friends has an incurable heart disease that has killed people before. She should be able to live a relatively normal life, though, if careful, but it's still shocking and scary to think about. So, I when I had both the time and mental capability I wrote an update to this story.
> 
> So, thank you to everyone who has reviewed because I updated for you and appreciate every single one of you. 
> 
> Also, check out my other fanstory, an Undertale (no couples) story called Missing in the Mist! :-)


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